Germany has outlined plans to establish a new institution in Berlin dedicated to its historical relationship with Poland, particularly the atrocities committed during the Nazi occupation of Germany in World War II.
overview plan Regarding the new “Poland-German House,” as the project is known, Federal Secretary for Culture and Media Claudia Roth described it as “Germany’s most important monumental and cultural monument,” according to a report from broadcaster ZDF.・It’s a political project.”
“The planned Polish-German House is a monument to the suffering that took place in Poland between 1939 and 1945 and the brutality of more than 5 million Polish citizens, including approximately 3 million Jewish children, women and men. “It’s a memorial to the dead,” she said. he added, as quoted by the Polish News Agency (PAP).
“Eines der wichtigsten erinnerungs- und kulturpolitischen Projekte der Bundesregierung”, so Claudia #Loss.#pollen https://t.co/dYl61fuj5c pic.twitter.com/8TcgmbnUs2
— BKM Kultur & Medien (@BundesKultur) August 29, 2023
According to Ross, the Poland-German House will be located in the center of the capital, near the German Chancellery, the center of the federal government.
The current proposed site is the site of the Kroll Opera House, which served as the German Reichstag from 1933 to 1942. It was here that on September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler announced an attack on Poland.
Hitler announced the attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, at the Kroll Opera House, which was then used as the Reichstag (German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commonsbottom CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)
It is estimated that approximately 6 million Polish civilians (about half of whom were Polish Jews) died as a result of the ensuing war, equivalent to 17% of the prewar population. This was the highest proportional death toll of any country during World War II.
German occupation forces also ravaged many Polish cities, including the capital Warsaw, where about 85% of buildings were destroyed, and looted or destroyed much of Poland’s cultural heritage.
That painful legacy continues to cause tensions today, particularly in recent years under Poland’s conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, which has moved to obtain war reparations from Germany. Berlin maintains that these claims have no legal basis.
The German ambassador warned Poland not to “open Pandora’s box” of war reparations because “this will not do anything good for Europe”.
But he also admitted that Germany’s support for the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia was “a mistake”. https://t.co/fLSbOKVMXe
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 24, 2023
The planned Poland-German House will focus on wartime atrocities, while also covering Germany’s role in the partition of Poland from the late 18th century to the early 20th century, the migration of Poles to German territory, and Integration of Poland into the EU and NATO.
“circleGermans, myself included, still have a lot to learn,” Ross was quoted as saying by broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “There are still many gaps in our knowledge about Poland. This also applies to the scope of German crime [in Poland] and Poland’s contribution to European history. ”
Ross said he intends to submit a formal proposal for the project, including a timeline for its creation, by spring 2024. The German-Polish Institute (DPI) and the Memorial Foundation for the Murder of European Jews are also involved in the preparation of the plan.
DPI Director-General Oliver Loew was quoted as saying that the monument (the concept of which was approved by the Bundestag in 2020) “will be a beacon of German sympathy for Poland, which was missing until now.” Targets Spiegel every day.
The presidents of Poland, Germany and Israel jointly commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
During the visit, the German president was handed a copy of Poland’s war reparations bill by a Polish government minister. https://t.co/KRGRvnk8rS
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 19, 2023
Mr. Ross also emphasized that: [this project] Together with the Poles,” broadcaster Deutsche Welle points out. She hopes this will help “build trust, friendship and mutual strength” between the two countries and their peoples.
Poland’s ambassador to Germany, Dariusz Paułosz, cautiously welcomed the proposal and said he was “acting with caution”, ZDF reported. He told dpa news agency that Poland would offer “our support, support and tolerance.”
However, Polish conservative news website wPolyce, which supports the ruling PiS party, has reported that Germany is not just planning to build a memorial site for the victims, but also a restaurant and library that examines centuries of history. They expressed concern that they are planning to build a wider range of facilities, including: .
Critic Aleksandra Rybińska said: “In this way, the history of the brutal German occupation is obscured and something important is denied, because it is set in a broader context.” ” he wrote.
.@ARybinska: “History of History” Zamiast Pomnica, Ziri Jacques Berlin Zamielza Upamietnić Zamoldwanić wi Zassie II Wožny Šviatovei Polakow https://t.co/iU7qv1BKpA
— wPolityce.pl (@wPolityce_pl) August 29, 2023
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Daniel Tilles is the editor-in-chief Notes from Poland. He has written for a wide range of publications on Polish issues. foreign policy, politiko europe, EU observer and Jenik Gazeta Prauna.